Post #2 – The Tyler Rationale

Curriculum development from a traditionalist perspective is widely used across schools in Canada and other countries. Think about: (a) The ways in which you may have experienced the Tyler rationale in your own schooling; (b) What are the major limitations of the Tyler rationale/what does it make impossible; and (c) What are some potential benefits/what is made possible.

a) The Tyler rationale is often still present in schools today and was definitely a part of my schooling especially when I was in the younger grades. I have a very specific of being in grade 5 and having to do an extremely hard standarized test type thing that allowed the government to measure our progress and see what we knew in relation to what we should know. I do not remember what these tests were called but I am pretty sure schools do not do them any more. The tests had different sections like a math section and an english section (similar to what TV shows make the SATs sound like) and we had a certain amount of time to finish each section. We would do it over the course of a couple days completing about 1 section a day. Our teachers were not allowed to help us in any way. When in grade 5 I had a runny nose while writing this test, so I was blowing my nose every 5 minutes. This became a problem because I was distracting my classmates and wasting the little time we were given to complete the section. My teacher ended up telling me I couldn’t get up so often and I eventually had to put the kleenex box and garbage at my desk. I also remember the tests having things that we had never seen before in our lives and were not in the curriculum until later grades. For example I remember seeing a square root symbol and being expected to know what it was and how to reduce it in grade 5. These tests were ways to measure success and allow the governement to see how well the curriculum they have mandated creates children that will be ‘beneficial’ to society in the future or what areas need work.

b) The Tyler rationale discourages individual thinking, especially in teachers. Page 4 of the Curriculum Theory and Practice reading states that many people were trying to make the  curriculum “teacher proof”. They were trying to make it so that every student learn sthe exact same thing at the same time. This took the pedagogy out of teaching. Educators couldn’t add in ideas of their own teaching philosophies to help their students learn. The Tyler rationale pushes curriculum as product which shifts focus to the end result like grades and test scores rather than the journey, growth, and learning that had to take place in order to get there. Another downside to Tyler rationale is how it can make it hard for certain students to succeed. Not all students learn in the same ways or at the same speed but the Tyler rationale focuses on efficiency. This could look something like having a set schedule where you complete a chapter or section per day or however it works out. The Tyler rationale prioritizes the curriculum over the students and their ability to succeed. 

c) A benefit to the Tyler rationale could be how it helps make assessment and measuring student’s successes and behaviours easier for the teacher because there is a clear goal or benchmark where that child needs to be at certain points in their schooling. The curriculum has specific outcomes and if their students are meeting those the teacher knows their students are on track according to the government. This also has an easier way of assessing students progress because of the clear outcomes, even though the assessment methods might not be fair to every student. 

Reading –

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XZhYFfUX6W0K9mmnY6k3DfuV25n5Yz2S/view (From Smith, M. K. (1996, 2000) ‘Curriculum theory and practice’ the encyclopaedia of informal education).